A house fire in Kyle late Friday night claimed the life of one person and completely destroyed the home.

The Kyle & District Fire Department received the call at 8:09 p.m. and within 10 minutes were at the scene on 2nd Avenue East battling the blaze.

According to George Akister , fire chief for the Kyle & District Fire Department, the fire began in the garage.

"There was an attached garage on the residence, and it was pretty well fully involved with fire at that time," he said depicting the scene the fire crew arrived at. "It had already got through to the attic area of the roof... There was smoke coming out from the eaves of the house."

A fire hydrant was located directly across the road from the house allowing fire crews a close source of water to begin combating the blaze. Even in -40 C temperatures, the hydrant wasn't frozen.

"We had to keep water moving, once we got the hoses flowing, we couldn't shut them off because they'd freeze within minutes," he said.

The bitter conditions with windchills around -55 C forced the eight firefighters to work in shifts. Akister said the fire was the coldest temperatures he's had to battle a fire in recent memory, but he was thankful for the community support while they spent seven hours containing it.

"They provided coffee, food, warm up," he said. "Keeping warm was the hardest thing... The truck we have has a pump house that you can seat three or four members in there with heat."

A female and her two pets, a dog (Ocean) and cat (Phoebe), perished in the fire.

"My condolences go out to them, it's a huge loss," he said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.